Job losses as glass company enters administration
BBCNearly 300 jobs are being lost after a major glass manufacturer entered administration.
Clayton Glass is to close its headquarters in Harelaw, County Durham, with 189 workers being made redundant.
A further 101 jobs will be lost at the company's sites in Blackburn and North Lanarkshire.
The company, which employs 573 people across seven UK sites, entered administration on 18 September after it became unable to meet its financial obligations.
Administrators Interpath said the business had been hit by high energy and raw material costs, as well as an extended period of low demand.
Clayton Glass was founded in 1956 and manufactures insulated glass units for window, conservatory, door and glazing contractors.
Efforts were made to save the entire business, with the support of external capital, but administrators said no viable solvent solution could be found.
'Rising costs'
Instead, the company's business and some of its assets have been sold to Clayton Glass Group Ltd, an entity backed by the former management team.
The deal saves 283 jobs and includes sites in Nottingham, Swindon, Canterbury and Dewsbury.
However, the County Durham, Blackburn and North Lanarkshire sites will close, resulting in a total of 290 redundancies.
Harelaw is the company's headquarters and largest site.
James Lumb, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator of Clayton Glass, said: "Clayton Glass has a proud history, having established itself at the heart of the British glass industry, and this transaction gives the business a platform to continue, secures some of its operations and, crucially, preserves a significant number of jobs.
"Unfortunately, we are seeing a similar story across a range of businesses supplying the housing market. The economics of the industry are incredibly challenging with high and rising fixed costs and soft demand which makes good businesses like Clayton unsustainable on a normal operating base.
"The directors have fought hard to find a solvent solution, but regrettably not all of the business could be rescued in this market.
"We have a dedicated team on site supporting impacted staff through this difficult time with making representations to the Redundancy Payments Service."
